Anil Nandlall, the attorney for Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, yesterday urged the Court of Appeal to expedite the hearing of the appeals that were filed challenging the rulings of Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire SC regarding the controversial December 21st passage of a no-confidence motion against the government.
In a letter to the Registrar of Chancellor (ag) Yonette Cummings-Edwards, which was seen by Stabroek News, Nandlall has argued that the records can be prepared without any delays given that the High Court relied on written submissions and, subsequently, oral submissions, which were recorded by the court.
Nandlall’s letters comes two days after General Secretary of APNU, Joseph Harmon, through his attorneys Roysdale Forde and Olayne Joseph, filed two appeals.
Two days prior, Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams SC, on behalf of the government, also filed two appeals.
Checks by Stabroek News at the Court of Appeal yesterday revealed that no date has been set in either case. It was later disclosed that the Notices of Appeal have to go through a process before dates can be fixed. There was no indication as to when the court will settle on a date or dates for the hearings.
Observers have said that since the clock is ticking on the three-month deadline for elections imposed by the Constitution, the court should treat all appeals emanating from the motion with urgency.
The first court action was filed by Berbice farmer Compton Reid against Charrandass Persaud, the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Barton Scotland and the AG. The court later granted applications for Harmon and Jagdeo to be added as interested parties. The case challenged the validity of Persaud’s vote given that he has Canadian citizenship. According to the Constitution, this would have made him ineligible to be elected as a member of the National Assembly.
The second case was filed by the AG against Scotland and Jagdeo. Harmon was also added to this case, which contended that the support of an “absolute majority” of 34 of the 65 elected Members of Parliament was needed for the confidence motion to pass.
The third case was filed on behalf of chartered accountant Christopher Ram and lists Jagdeo and the AG as the respondents. In this action, Ram asked the court, through his attorney Kamal Ramkarran, to uphold the passage of the no-confidence motion and to declare that the President and his Cabinet should immediately resign as a result.
In his letter to the Chancellor’s Registrar, Nandlall stressed that “time is of the essence” and reminded that his client is listed a respondent in the both sets of Notices of Appeal filed thus far.
“As you are aware, the said Notices of Appeal involve matters of national importance, touching and concerning the constitutional and democratic architecture of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. It is therefore of significant public importance that these Notices of Appeal are heard and determined with every convenient speed,” he said.
Nandlall, a former AG, informed that no evidence was taken in the High Court as submissions made by the Counsels for all the parties were done in writing, and oral arguments were recorded via the automatic electronic recording system recently installed in the court.
As it relates to the latter, he said, transcripts are readily available in all three matters and have been circulated to the attorneys for all the parties. At the time of delivery of the decisions, the Chief Justice intimated that the complete record of her written decisions would be available within a matter of a few days thereafter, he said.
It was after Reid’s attorney, Neil Boston SC, indicated that he wished to have the written decision before he files an appeal that the Chief Justice said she would work towards having it available by last Wednesday. Repeated checks since then have revealed that the written decisions are still not ready. This newspaper was told that while the judge still has “some cleaning up” to do, it is unclear when they will be available.
Nandlall, in his letter, said that given what he has outlined, the Records of Appeal in respect of each of the cases can be prepared, filed and served within a few days. “In the circumstances, we respectfully request that a date be urgently fixed for a Case Management Conference to be held so that the appropriate directions can be given in order to facilitate an early hearing and determination of the Notices of Appeal at caption,” he added.
On December 21st, a vote from then government parliamentarian Persaud in favour of a PPP/C-sponsored no-confidence motion against the APNU+AFC administration, tipped the scales 33 to 32 in its favour.
Consequently, Scotland ruled that the motion was carried. The government subsequently asked him to reconsider and reverse his ruling. However, Scotland declined and indicated that the court be approached for redress.
On January 31st, the Chief Justice ruled that the no-confidence motion was validly passed despite Persaud’s ineligibility to be a member of the National Assembly; that the 33 votes in its favour constituted the needed majority of the 65-member National Assembly and that this should have triggered the immediate resignation of the Cabinet, including the President. She also said that there is a clear distinction between the Cabinet and the government and explained that even where the former resigns, there would still be a government, made up of the president and ministers, who are to perform their duties and functions until elections are held and a new government is sworn in.
